Ex-Baltimore mayor aims for presidency

O’Malley

Tribune News Service

May 30, 2015

Photo: GABRIELLA DEMCZUK, STR / New York Times

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Martin O'Malley, a former governor of Maryland, takes the stage at a campaign kickoff event at Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, May 30, 2015. O'Malley officially joined the race for the Democratic nomination for president on Saturday. (Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times) less

Martin O'Malley, a former governor of Maryland, takes the stage at a campaign kickoff event at Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, May 30, 2015. O'Malley officially joined the race for the Democratic nomination for ... more

Photo: GABRIELLA DEMCZUK, STR / New York Times

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Martin O'Malley, a former governor of Maryland, speaks at a campaign kickoff event at Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, May 30, 2015. O'Malley officially joined the race for the Democratic nomination for president on Saturday. (Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times) less

Martin O'Malley, a former governor of Maryland, speaks at a campaign kickoff event at Federal Hill Park in Baltimore, May 30, 2015. O'Malley officially joined the race for the Democratic nomination for ... more

Photo: GABRIELLA DEMCZUK, STR / New York Times

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Martin O’Malley announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, talking about income inequality and how too many people have too little hope.

Martin O’Malley announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, talking about income inequality and how too many people have too little hope.

Photo: Gabriella Demczuk /New York Times

Ex-Baltimore mayor aims for presidency

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BALTIMORE — Martin O’Malley launched his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination Saturday in the heart of the city he once led. But Baltimore today confronts an image far different from the one O’Malley left behind when his term as mayor ended eight years ago.

“For all of us who have given so much of our energies to making our city a safer, fairer, more just and more prosperous place, it was a heartbreaking night in the life of our city,” he said. “But there is something to be learned from that night, and there is something to be offered to our country from those flames.”

Baltimore’s agony, O’Malley told an audience of about 600, was “not only about race; not only about policing in America. It’s about everything it is supposed to mean to be an American.”

He talked about income inequality, poverty and how too many people have too little hope. He said he would be their champion, beholden not to Wall Street but to working-class people.

“Tell me how it is you can get pulled over for a broken taillight in our country, but if you wreck the nation’s economy you are untouchable.”

Protesters shouted from nearby.

“Black men and women no longer feel safe walking around this city because of him,” said Tawanda Jones, a Baltimore teacher. Owen Anders, another teacher, said O’Malley would be a “very poor president. His current policies have helped lead to the deaths of hundreds of black Americans.”

O’Malley won a majority in the 1999 Democratic primary against prominent African-American opponents, and he was re-elected four years later. In 2006, he became governor.